Heat treating basket



Aug. 6, 1968 c. G. A. JOHNSON HEAT TREATING BASKET 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 15, 1965 INVENTOR. CARL G. A. JOHNSON BY 4/1162? w 4 ATTORNEYS.

6, 1968 c. G. A. JOHNSON 3,395,810

HEAT TREATING BASKET Filed Nov. 15, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. CARL G. A. JOHNSON AT TORNEYS United States Patent 3,395,810 HEAT TREATING BASKET Carl G. A. Johnson, Rocky River, Ohio, assignor to The Alloy Engineering Company Filed Nov. 15, 1965, Ser. No. 507,863 8 Claims. (Cl. 211-126) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A heat treating basket comprised of rod-like elements defining connected side, bottom and end structures, the bottom structure having portions which extend beyond the side structures and are engageable on the side structures of a lower of two stacked baskets, and the bottom structure having other portions which are received between upper portions of the side structures of the lower of two stacked baskets.

The present invention relates to heat treating baskets or trays and relates more particularly to baskets which are stacked during heat treating or other article treating processes.

The present invention is more particularly concerned with stackable baskets which are fabricated from pieces of heavy wire or bars affixed together as by welding in crossed and abutted relation and formed with sides to hold and contain the articles to be specially treated. In order to efficiently utilize space and provide optimum heat treatment for articles, several such baskets are generally stacked one on top of another and transported into a furnace as by sliding them along a floor of the furnace.

Prior to the present invention, it has been attempted to maintain the baskets in their stacked relation by means of loose or separate locator bars which are laid across the top of a lower stacked basket and seat in a groove in the top of the basket sides. Small guide plates fixed to the ends of the locator bars serve to guide and seat an upper stacked basket and prevent relative lateral movement of the baskets. In addition, handles on the ends of the baskets extend above the ends of the basket and prevent relative longitudinal movement of the baskets.

()ne problem with these prior basket constructions is that when the baskets are in their stacked relation, .one round rod is seated on top of another similar round rod in parallel relation. The contact between the baskets is primarily longitudinal contact between two round surfaces. The guide plates of the stacked baskets do not always fit in a precise, snug relation and the upper stacked baskets have a tendency to slip from and move on the lower baskets. Another problem is that the locator bars are separate pieces which require extra cost, handling, and hinder efficient stacking of the baskets.

In addition, when the baskets are in use in a heat treating furnace or subjected to other processing conditions, they have a tendency to warp and twist often rising out of their seated relation. In order to prevent this, it has become the practice to generally hand wire the baskets together with a few wraps of soft iron wire, thereby tying them together before placing the baskets in the furnace or other like processing chamber. The wire serves to hold the baskets together. Wiring the baskets together is undesirable not only because of the cost of materials and extra labor involved, but also because it limits facile manipulation of the baskets during stacking and unstacking and otherwise moving them as is required.

In the heat treating basket of the present invention, the sides of the basket each include upper and lower longitudinally extending side rods. The upper and lower side rods of each basket side are generally parallel and the outside dimension of the lower side rods of both sides of the "ice basket is less than the inside dimension of the upper rods of the sides of the basket so that the lower side rods of one basket will nest within the upper side rods of another basket. The upper and lower rods of each basket side define an imaginary plane which tapers inwardly such that the planes defined by both sides converge. The bottom of the basket includes lateral bottom rods which extend transversely of the upper and lower side rods of the'sides of the basket. The lateral rods are atfixed to the upper surfaces of the lower side rods of the sides of the basket and extend beyond the lower side rods to at least an imaginary place tangent to the outermost surfaces of the width of the upper side rods of the basket. When the baskets are arranged in a stacked and nested relation, the extended portions of the lateral bottom rods of an upper basket rest on the upper side rods of a lower stacked basket. The loads on the lateral bottom rods forming the floor of a basket are transmitted directly to the sides of a lower stacked basket and through the sides of any other stacked baskets to the floor or other support on which the lowermost basket rests.

Support plates, which may be also used as thrust or pusher pads, are located on the basket ends near the bottom of the basket so as to engage and rest on the upper end rods of the ends of the basket when two baskets are stacked and nested. In a preferred form of the invention, with the lateral bottom rods afiixed to the upper surfaces of the bottom side rods, the pusher pad is spaced from the lowermost surface of the bottom rods. The upper end rods of the ends of the basket are spaced from the uppermost surface of the upper side rods. The latter two spacings together are substantially the width or dimension of the lowermost rods of the baskets so that the pusher plates rest on the upper end rods when two baskets are stacked and nested.

Several baskets constructed according to the present invention stack quickly and easily. The effectively tapered sides of the basket having their lower portions nesting within the upper portions of a lower stacked basket are self seating. The stacked baskets also stay in their stacked relation during processing, e.g., heat treating, of the articles contained by them regardless of the amount of warping and twisting by the basket during the conditioning processes. Even though a basket may twist and move during a heat treating process, it stays in its nested relation and reseats itself.

Each stacked basket is supported on its sides and ends to provide complete peripheral support on a lower basket. The load of each individual basket is transmitted by its lateral bottom rods to the sides of lower stacked baskets which in turn transmit the forces to a supporting surface such as the floor of a furnace. The bottom rods of the basket are curved and arranged so that they slide easily along the floor of the furnace or other chamber into which the baskets are moved as by sliding them.

Other features and advantages of the heat treating basket of the present invention may be obtained by reference to the drawings in which:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective drawing of the heat treating basket of the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a top plan view of the heat treating basket of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a side elevational view of the heat treating basket of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 4 is an end elevational view of the heat treating basket of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 5 is an end view of an alternate form of the heat treating basket of the present invention;

FIGURE 6 is a fragmentary end view showing the nesting relation of two heat treating baskets of the present invention.

Referring now to the drawings, a heat treating basket made according to the present invention is shown and designated by the reference character 11. A bottom of the basket is formed by longitudinally extending intermediate runner rods 12 (four shown) and side runner rod portions 13 of side frames 14. The lunner rods 12 have runner portions 15 and up-turned, end wall forming portions 16. The runner rod portions 13, 15 are the floor engaging members or parts of the basket 11 on which the basket rides when it is shoved or pushed along a support surface. It is preferred that at least the runner portions 13, 15 have round floor engaging lower surfaces so as to provide a minimum of contact with a support surface.

A floor of the basket is formed by a plurality (four shown) of quadrilateral floor frames 17 laid laterally and equally spaced across the tops of the runner portions 13, 15 of the intermediate runner rods 12 and the side frames 14, respectively. Each floor frame 17 comprises two J-shaped rods 18, 19 having their ends in abutting relation and welded together at W. Longer side rod portions 20, 21 of the quadrilateral floor frames 17 are parallel and spaced equal to the spacing between adjacent frames 17 so that all of the longer side rod portions are equally spaced. The spacing between the side rod portions are equal to the spacing between the runner rod portions 13, 15 so that the bottom of the basket is a grid pattern of squares. The side rod portions 20, 21 of the floor frame 17 are dimensioned so that end rod portions 22, 23 extend :beyond the outside of the runner portions 13 of the side frame 14.

All intersections of the floor frames 17 and the side frames 14 are fixed together, as by welding. Every other intersection of the floor frame 17 and the intermediate runner rods 12 are fixed together, as by welding.

The side frames 14 are quadrilaterals having the bottom runner portions 13, end portions 25, 26 and side upper rail portions 27. The side frames are made from two U-shaped members having up-turned ends in abutting relation and fixed together as by welding.

The sides of the :basket 11 are formed of the side frames 14 and V-shaped side bracing members 30. The V-shaped bracing members 30 extend between and are welded to the floor frames 17 and the upper rail portions 27. As shown in FIGURE 3, the side braces have their free ends welded to and between the lateral bars of adjacent floor frames so as to bridge the spaces between the floor frames and their apexes welded to the top rail portions 27. The ends of the baskets are formed from the up-turned end portions 16 of the runner rods 12 and an end upper rail 32.

Referring to FIGURE 4, the side frames 14 are angled mutually inwardly from top to bottom so that imaginary planes defined :by them converge at a line parallel to the bottom of the basket and in a plane passing through the longitudinal center line of the basket and vertical to the plane of the bottom of the basket.

Referring to FIGURE 4, pusher pads 35, 36 are ailixed, as by welding, to the outermost surfaces of the up-turned end portions 16. The pads 35, 36 are conventional thrust plates or pusher pads which are engaged by impelling dogs of a mechanism which moves the basket in the direction of the runner rods when the basket is in use as in moving the basket into a heat treating furnace.

Referring to FIGURE 5, Where the conventional pusher pads 35, 36 are not required, a support pad 37 is fixed, as by welding, to the centermost up-turned end portions 16 of the intermediate runner rods 12 at each end. The bottom surfaces of the support pads 37 are aligned with the center line of the bottom runner rod portions 13, 15 and, hence, are spaced from a plane defined by the bottom-most surface of the bottom runner rod portions 13, 15 by one-half of the diameter of the runner rod portions.

The angle of the incline of the side frames 14 is such that their bottom runner portions 15 lie entirely inside 4 and slightly spaced from a vertical, imaginary plane tangent to the inside surfaces of the upper rail portions 27 of the side frames. The floor frames 17 extend beyond the upper rail portions. The end rod portions 22, 23 of the floor frames 17 lie wholly outside and slightly spaced from vertical imaginary planes tangent to the outermost surface of the upper rail portions 27 of the side frames 14. The side wall defining and bracing rod members 30 are arranged vertically to the bottoms of the basket 11 between the side upper rail portions 27 and the floor frames 17 and lie wholly Within parallel, imaginary planes tangent to the surfaces of the side upper rail portions 27 and vertical to the bottom of the basket 11.

The up-turned end portions 16 of the bottom runner rods 12 are arranged parallel to each other and vertically to the bottom of the basket 11. The end upper rails 32 are fixed, as by welding, to the outside halves of the upturned end portions 16. In this position, the end upper rails 32 are aligned with the pusher pads such that the pads of an upper basket engages at least the middle of the top rail portion of a lower basket. The uppermost surfaces of the end top rails are spaced from and located below a plane defined by the uppermost surfaces of the top rail portions of the side frames. The spacing between the pads and the plane as defined by the bottom surfaces of the bottom runner rods is substantially equal to the spacing between the planes defined by the top surfaces of the end top rails and the side top rails.

Preferably, the entire basket 11 is made of a metallic material which is corrosion resistant and able to withstand repeated heating and quenching as in heat treating and in other metal treating processes. A metal found suitable for the present heat treating basket is designated as Inconel by International Nickel Company.

Referring to FIGURE 6, the relationship of two stacked baskets 11, 11 is shown by a fragmentary view of their corners. With the baskets 11, 11' in their stacked relation, the runner rod portions 13 of the upper stacked basket 11 are received within and are aligned with the top rail portions 27' of the lower stacked basket 11. The floor frames 17 of the upper basket 11 rest on the top rail portions 27 of the lower basket 11'. The pusher plates 36 of the upper basket 11 rest on the end upper rails 32 of the lower stacked basket.

The weight of the basket 11 and the articles carried by the basket 11 as carried by the floor frames 17 is directly transmitted to the side upper rail portions 27 and the pusher plates 35, 36 to the end upper rails 32'. The weight on the side upper rail portions 27 is transmitted through the V-shaped braces 30' to the floor frames 17' and to the bottom runner portions 13 on the lower stacked basket 11'. The weight on the end upper rails 32 is transmitted to the floor or other support by the upturned end portions 16 and the end portions 25', 26 of the side frames 14.

Should the upper stacked basket 11 vlift from its nested relation with the lower stacked basket 11 as by warping or twisting of the baskets while in use, the side frames 14 Will reseat themselves within the side frames 14' of the lower stacked basket 11', as long as the baskets have not moved so far from alignment that the bottom runner rod portions 13 are disposed outside of the upper rail portions 27 of the lower basket 11. The rounded surfaces of the runner rod portions 13 and the top rail portions 27' function to guide and cam the baskets into their aligned arrangement should they relatively rotate and become offset relatively during warping and twisting.

Although the invention has been described in its preferred form with a certain degree of particularity, it is understood that the present disclosure of the preferred form has been made only by way of example and that numerous changes in the details of construction and the combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and the scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed.

I claim:

1. In a heat treating basket, a plurality of which may be stacked to contain articles to be heat treated in a heat treating furnace, said basket having connected bottom, end and side structures comprising:

(a) a plurality of runner rods extending in substantially parallel relation and defining the runners for the basket;

(b) the runner rods including upturned end portions;

(c) an upper rail fixed to the tops of the upturned end portions of the runner rods to define the end walls of the basket with the upturned end portions;

(d) a plurality of floor rods extending in spaced, substantially parallel relation, transverse to and above the upper surfaces of the runner rods;

(e) the ends of the floor rods extending beyond the outermost runner rods on each side of the basket;

(f) side frame members including the outermost runner rods forming the sides of the basket;

(g) the side frames including upper side rails extending in substantially parallel relation to the runner rods and spaced above imaginary planes defined by the runner rods and the floor rods; and,

(h) the dimension between the outermost surfaces of the outermost runner rods being less than the dimension between the innermost surfaces of the upper side rails whereby the upper side rails of one basket receive between them the outermost runner rods of an upper stacked basket and the extended ends of the floor rods of an upper basket rest on the upper side rails of a lower basket.

2. The heat treating basket of claim 1 wherein the floor rods are joined in several quadrilateral frames having end rod portions extending parallel to the runner rods and spaced outside of imaginary planes arranged tangent to the outermost surfaces of the upper side rails and vertical to the bottom of the basket.

3. The heat treating basket of claim 2 including:

(i) V-shaped bracing members having their free ends fixed to the floor rods of adjacent floor frames and their apexes fixed to the upper rails of the side frames, and the bracing members being vertical to a plane defined by the bottom of the basket.

4. The heat treating basket of claim 1 including:

(j) thrust plates fixed to the upturned portions of the runner rods and having a bottom surface spaced from an imaginary plane defined by the lowermost surfaces of the runner rods; and

(k) the latter space together with the space between the uppermost surfaces of the end upper rails and an imaginary plane defined by the uppermost surfaces of the side upper rails being the dimension of the runner rods of the basket so that the thrust plate of an upper stacked basket engages the end upper rails of a lower stacked basket.

stacked, comprising:

(a) a bottom including a plurality of rod-like, bottomforming members extending in generally parallel relation;

(b) side structure connected to said bottom and including rod like, side-forming members extending in directions transversely to said bottom-forming members;

(c) bottom-most portions of the side-forming members being spaced inwardly of the ends of the bottomforming members so that the end portions of the bottom-forming members extend beyond the bottommost portions of the side-forming members whereby the extended end portions of the bottom-forming members of an upper stacked basket seat on the sideforming members of a lower stacked basket;

(d) upper most portions of the side-forming members being spaced outwardly of their lowermost portions so that the uppermost portions receive the lowermost portions of an upper stacked basket;

(e) end structure connected to said bottom and to said side structure; and

(f) said bottom having other portions which are spaced inwardly from upper portions of said end structure and are receivable between the end structure upper portions of the lower of two stacked baskets.

6. The heat treating basket of claim 5 wherein said sideforming members are rods joined to form a quadilateral frame.

7. The heat treating basket of claim 5 wherein said bottom-forming members are rods joined in elongated quadilateral frames.

between the end upper rails of the lower of two stacked baskets.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 7/1957 Kaye 211126 X 2/1960 Averill 211126 X 6/1964 Muckler 211-126 X 12/1964 Hare et al 211126 X ROY D. FRAZIER, Primary Examiner.

W. D. LOULAN, Assistant Examiner. 

